On November 8th the Cincinnati Reds signed catcher Bryan Pena to a 2-year contract and immediately rumors of the Rays and Ryan Hanigan began. The talks seemed to quiet down after the team signed Jose Molina[2] and had Jose Lobaton[3] coming back.

[8]Hanigan is under team control for one more season and MLB Trade Rumors projects him to make $2.3M in 2o14 which certainly fits in with the Rays budget.

Last year Hanigan struggled with the bat hitting just .198 (44 for 222) but as Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors[9] points out provides a quick look at Hanigan’s season:

The main culprit in Hanigan’s poor season appears to have been a .216 batting average on balls in play. That number figures to trend back toward his career mark of .283, especially when considering that Hanigan’s batted-ball profile didn’t radically change in 2013. In fact, Hanigan’s 21.5 percent line-drive rate was actually a slight increase over his 2012 mark (21.2 percent) and is right in line with his career mark (21.9 percent).

Despite a poor showing in 2013 Hanigan has been a productive hitter posting a career slash line of .262/.359/.343 and has thrown out 40% of the runners trying to steal against him.